Saul Bellow (1915 - 2005 )

Born: 10 June 1915

Birthplace: Lachine, Quebec, Canada

Died: 5 April 2005

Best Known As: Author of Henderson, The Rain King and Seize the Day

Name at birth: Solomon Bellows

Saul Bellow was a Jewish-American writer who in 1976 won the Nobel Prize for a career that included the novels Herzog (1965) and Seize the Day (1956). The son of Russian immigrants, he spent most of his life in Chicago and was closely associated with the city. His first novel, The Dangling Man, was written while Bellow was a Merchant Marine during World War II and published in 1944. A Guggenheim Fellowship in 1948 allowed him to travel in Europe and work on The Adventures of Augie March (1953), a National Book Award winner in 1954. His 1959 novel, Henderson, The Rain King, was a commercial and critical success, and Bellows was hailed as one of America's finest writers. Herzog (1964) and Mr. Sammler's Planet (1970) both won National Book Awards, and Humboldt's Gift (1975) earned Bellows a Pulitzer Prize. Bellows wrote about modern man -- an urban American Jew in most cases -- and the attempt to find identity and spiritual comfort in a neurotic and alienating society. He also wrote essays, short stories and plays, and taught for many years at the University of Chicago, and, after 1993, Boston University. His other books include More Die of Heartbreak (1987), A Theft (1989) and To Jerusalem and Back: A Personal Account (1976), his non-fiction account of his 1975 sojourn to Israel.

Bellow was married five times, the last time to Janis Freedman, a former student who was more than 40 years younger; in 1999 they had a daughter, when Bellow was 84 years old.
Works

* Dangling Man (1944)
* The Victim (1947)
* The Adventures of Augie March (1953)
* Seize the Day (1956)
* Henderson the Rain King (1959)
* Herzog (1964)
* Mosby's Memoirs (short stories also available in Collected Stories) (1968)
* Mr. Sammler's Planet (1970)
* Humboldt's Gift (1975), won the 1976 Pulitzer Prize
* The Dean's December (1982)
* Him with His Foot in His Mouth (short stories also available in Collected Stories) (1984)
* More Die of Heartbreak(1987)
* A Theft (1989)
* The Bellarosa Connection (1989)
* Something to Remember Me By: Three Tales (collecting the eponymous short story, A Theft and The Bellarosa Connection) (1991)
* The Actual (1997)
* Ravelstein (2000)
* Collected Stories (2001)

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Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811 - 1896)

Born: 14 June 1811

Birthplace: Litchfield, Connecticut

Died: 1 July 1896

Best Known As: Author of Uncle Tom's Cabin

Name at birth: Harriet Elizabeth Beecher

Harriet Beecher Stowe was an American reformer and writer whose novel Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852) is a classic of 19th century anti-slavery literature. From an activist and influential New England family that included her father Lyman Beecher (1775-1863), sister Catharine Beecher (1800-1878) and brother Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887), Harriet moved to Cincinnati in 1833 and married Calvin Ellis Stowe in 1836. While living in Cincinnati, she became active in the anti-slavery movement and, while raising seven children, began writing professionally. Uncle Tom's Cabin, first serialized in 1851, appeared in book form in 1852 and became a bestseller in the United States and England. The story examined the "life among the lowly" and helped frame the slavery issue as a moral one. Stowe wrote more than two dozen books, both fiction and non-fiction, including A Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin (1853), a fact-filled companion to her famous novel. Her other works include Dred: A Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp (1856), Pearl of Orr's Island (1862) and Pink and White Tyranny (1871).

Beecher Stowe caused a controversy in 1869 with a magazine article, "The True Story of Lady Byron's Wife," a piece she wrote after making the acquaintance of the great poet's widow, in which she accused Lord Byron of committing incest with his sister, Augusta... In 1896 her works were published in 16 volumes as The Writings of Harriet Beecher Stowe.

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Henry Fielding (1707-1754)

Henry Fielding was born in Glastonbury in Somerset in 1707. The son of a army lieutenant and a judge's daughter, he was educated at Eton School and the University of Leiden before returning to England where he wrote a series of farces, operas and light comedies.

Fielding formed his own company and was running the Little Theatre, Haymarket, when one of his satirical plays began to upset the government. The passing of the Theatrical Licensing Act in 1737 effectively ended Fielding's career as a playwright.

In 1739 Fielding turned to journalism and became editor of The Champion. He also began writing novels, including: The Adventures of Joseph Andrews (1742), Abraham Adams (1842) and Jonathan Wild (1743).

Fielding was made a justice of the peace for Westminster and Middlesex in 1748. He campaigned against legal corruption and helped his half-brother, Sir John Fielding, establish the Bow Street Runners.

In 1749 Fielding's novel, The History of Tom Jones was published to public acclaim. Critics agree that it is one of the greatest comic novels in the English language. Fielding followed this success with another well received novel, Amelia (1751).

Fielding continued as a journalist and his satirical journal, Covent Garden, continued to upset those in power. Throughout his life, Fielding suffered from poor health and by 1752 he could not move without the help of crutches. In an attempt to overcome his health problems, Henry Fielding went to live in Portugal but this was not successful and he died in Lisbon in 1754.

Selected works:

• LOVE IN SEVERAL MASQUES, 1728
• THE TRAGEDY OF TRAGEDIES: OR, THE THE LIFE AND DEATH OF TOM THUMB THE GREAT, 1730
• THE COFFEE-HOUSE POLITICIAN, 1730
• THE MODERN HUSBAND, 1732
• DON QUIXOTE IN ENGLAND, 1734
• PASQUIN, 1937
• THE HISTORICAL REGISTER, 1737
• AN APOLOGY FOR THE LIFE OF MRS. SHAMELA ANDREWS, 1741
• THE HISTORY OF THE ADVENTURES OF JOSEPH ANDREWS, 1742 - Joseph Andrews - film 1976, dir. by Tony Richardson, starring Peter Firth, Ann-Margret
• THE HISTORY OF MR. JONATHAN WILD THE GREAT, 1743
• A JOURNEY FROM THIS WORLD TO THE NEXT, 1743
• THE HISTORY OF TOM JONES, A FOUNDLING, 1749 - Tom Jones - film 1963. dir. by Tony Richardson, written by John Osborne, starring Albert Finney, Susannah York
• AMELIA, 1751
• PROPOSAL FOR MAKING EFFECTIVE PROVISION FOR THE POOR, 1753
• THE JOURNAL OF A VOYAGE TO LISBON, 1755
• WORKS, 1766
• COLLECTED WORKS, 1882, 1902, 1967

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